Tech skill

AWS Skills

All about AWS

What is AWS?

AWS, or Amazon Web Services, is a comprehensive and widely-used cloud computing platform offered by Amazon. It provides services including computing power, storage solutions, and networking capabilities. Developers with AWS skills enable businesses to scale their infrastructure dynamically. They pay only for the resources they use, without the need to invest in costly physical hardware. Its flexibility, reliability, and scalability make it a go-to choice for organizations of all sizes ready to leverage the power of the cloud.

Trends in tech skills

Tech recruitment platform activity from 2022 to 2023 showed AWS was the third most commonly-requested skill in open projects. Software engineers with AWS skills receive 8% more interview requests on Hired than the marketplace average. Dave Walters, Hired CTO, suggests it’s the large adoption of AWS by the industry. In fact, when comparing year over year, AWS was requested in 18% more of the total active roles.

New Data & Insights

Hired’s previous State of Software Engineers report has become an article series focused on Software Engineer Trends featuring:

What to use AWS for

Web Hosting: Companies use AWS to host websites and web applications. These include static websites, dynamic web applications, e-commerce platforms, content management systems (CMS), and online portals, leveraging services such as Amazon S3, Amazon EC2, AWS Lambda, and Amazon CloudFront for storage, computing, serverless computing, and content delivery.
Application Development: Use AWS to develop and deploy applications. This may mean mobile apps, web apps. Some enterprise applications, leverage services such as AWS SDKs, AWS Amplify, AWS CloudFormation, and AWS CodeDeploy for development, deployment, testing, and management of applications in the cloud.
Big Data and Analytics: Process, analyze, and visualize large volumes of data with AWS. Some examples are data warehousing, business intelligence, machine learning, and real-time analytics, leveraging services such as Amazon Redshift, Amazon EMR, Amazon Athena, Amazon Kinesis, and Amazon QuickSight for data storage, processing, querying, and visualization.
IoT and Edge Computing: Use AWS to build and manage Internet of Things (IoT) solutions and edge computing applications, including connected devices, sensors, gateways, and edge devices, leveraging services such as AWS IoT Core, AWS Greengrass, and AWS IoT Analytics for device management, data processing, and integration with cloud services.
Enterprise IT and DevOps: Use AWS to run enterprise IT workloads and implementing DevOps practices, including infrastructure automation, continuous integration (CI), continuous delivery (CD), and infrastructure as code (IaC), leveraging services such as AWS CloudFormation, AWS CodePipeline, AWS CodeDeploy, and AWS CodeCommit for infrastructure provisioning, deployment, and management.

Companies of all sizes use Hired to find engineers with AWS skills

What is an AWS developer?

Here’s what it means to be an AWS developer:

Cloud Developer: An AWS developer is a cloud developer who specializes in building and deploying applications and services on the AWS cloud platform, leveraging AWS services, tools, and solutions for development, deployment, monitoring, and management of cloud-based workloads.
Proficient in AWS Services: An AWS developer is proficient in using AWS services and solutions, including compute, storage, database, networking, security, machine learning, artificial intelligence, analytics, and developer tools, enabling them to architect, develop, and optimize cloud-based applications and services for scalability, performance, and cost-efficiency.
Familiar with AWS SDKs: An AWS developer is familiar with AWS software development kits (SDKs) and APIs for various programming languages, including JavaScript, Python, Java, .NET, and Node.js, enabling them to integrate AWS services into their applications and automate tasks using programming languages of their choice.
Understanding of Cloud Architecture: An AWS developer has a solid understanding of cloud architecture principles, including microservices, serverless computing, containers, event-driven architecture, and distributed systems, enabling them to design and implement scalable, resilient, and cost-effective cloud-based solutions that meet the needs and requirements of their applications and workloads.
Experience with DevOps Practices: An AWS developer has experience with DevOps practices and tools for automation, continuous integration (CI), continuous delivery (CD), infrastructure as code (IaC), and monitoring and logging, enabling them to streamline development workflows, improve deployment processes, and enhance operational efficiency and collaboration within development teams.
Continuous Learner: An AWS developer is a lifelong learner who stays updated with the latest advancements in cloud computing, AWS services, and best practices in cloud development, and actively seeks opportunities for learning and professional development to enhance their skills and stay competitive in the field.

AWS Developer Salaries

Curious about salaries for AWS engineers? Check out Hired’s Salary Calculator for real-time data and our most recent tech compensation research report.

Most important AWS developer skills in 2024

Cloud Architecture: Proficiency in cloud architecture principles and patterns, including microservices, serverless computing, containers, event-driven architecture, and distributed systems, enabling developers to design and implement scalable, resilient, and cost-effective cloud-based solutions that leverage the full potential of AWS platform.
Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Experience with infrastructure as code (IaC) tools and practices, including AWS CloudFormation, AWS CDK, and Terraform, for automating the provisioning, configuration, and management of cloud infrastructure and resources, enabling developers to define and deploy infrastructure using code and to maintain consistency, reliability, and repeatability in their deployments.
DevOps Practices: Familiarity with DevOps practices and tools for automation, continuous integration (CI), continuous delivery (CD), monitoring, and logging, including AWS CodePipeline, AWS CodeDeploy, AWS CodeBuild, AWS CodeCommit, AWS CloudWatch, and AWS X-Ray, enabling developers to streamline development workflows, improve deployment processes, and enhance operational efficiency and collaboration within development teams.
Security and Compliance: Understanding of security best practices and compliance requirements for cloud-based applications, including data encryption, access control, identity management, logging, auditing, and regulatory compliance, and familiarity with AWS security services such as AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), AWS Key Management Service (KMS), AWS Web Application Firewall (WAF), and AWS Shield, enabling developers to design and implement secure and compliant cloud solutions that protect sensitive data and meet industry and regulatory standards.

How Hired helps hire AWS developers

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Why should you hire AWS developers?

Hiring AWS developers can bring numerous benefits to your organization:

Scalability and Elasticity: AWS developers enable you to build and deploy scalable, elastic applications and services on the AWS cloud platform. They also leverage AWS services and solutions for compute, storage, database, and networking, and dynamically scaling resources up or down to accommodate changing demand and workload requirements, ensuring optimal performance and cost-efficiency for your cloud-based workloads.
Reliability and High Availability: AWS developers help you build reliable and highly available applications and services on the AWS cloud platform, leveraging AWS’s global infrastructure, regions, availability zones, and services such as Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling, Amazon RDS Multi-AZ, and Amazon S3 Cross-Region Replication, to achieve fault tolerance, redundancy, and resilience for your cloud-based workloads, and to minimize downtime and service disruptions.
Security and Compliance: AWS developers ensure the security and compliance of your cloud-based applications and services. This is thanks to their understanding of security best practices, compliance requirements, and AWS security services. These enable you to implement robust security controls, protect sensitive data, and meet industry and regulatory standards for data privacy and security in the cloud.
Cost Optimization: AWS developers help you optimize costs and maximize return on investment (ROI) for your cloud-based workloads, thanks to their expertise in AWS cost management tools and best practices, enabling you to right-size resources, optimize usage, leverage spot instances and reserved instances, and implement cost-effective architectures and solutions that minimize infrastructure costs and maximize cost-efficiency in the cloud.

Assess tech candidates for AWS skills

Looking for candidates skilled in AWS? Technical assessments are a multi-pronged solution. They allow you to streamline the hiring process and reduce bias with tech skill-focused benchmarks.

Hired Assessments offers a library of hundreds of questions and customizable coding challenge campaigns tailored to technical preferences. Centralize and standardize your evaluation process as you surface top talent with specific, hard-to-find skills.

See how Mastercard and Axon used Hired Assessments to vet top candidates. See more examples in Customer Success Stories.

Are you a software engineer with AWS skills? Are you looking for an AWS tech role?

AWS resources

Check out our resources to continue sharpening your AWS skills. Hired regularly hosts coding challenges to help employers connect with talent. See the events page for upcoming opportunities. Take a peek at all of our resources for tech talent.

Hired profiles help developers showcase their top tech skills

After passing Hired skills assessments, candidates may showcase their skills to employers. They can opt to present an ‘Assessments’ badge on their profile. Candidates may take various assessments including Programming Skills, Full Stack, Backend, Frontend, iOS, Android, Debugging, DevOps Generalist, and DevOps AWS.

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